History

The oldest part of Tasma House is a 4 room miners cottage, still the front entry. This was built some time after the 1860’s. The second part, or the left hand side of the house was built in the 1920’s to make a guest house called Tasma House that the Sutton family ran for many years with its hey day in the 1930s to the 1950’s.

The house was surrounded by little huts, similar to the old bathing boxes by the seaside. Guests would come and stay for the summer, up to 30 at a time, where the guest house operators would cook meals and keep the guests happy and entertained. Times changed in Daylesford and decline set in.............

Three more families owned the property, adding little and withering more, when, in late 1996, my Family and I moved in as early tree changers from Melbourne.

In 1998, a lot of planning, collecting, collaborating, and chin scratching was done about how to start a reinvention of an old guest house into a family home with room to run a micro business, as well as house weekend guests in self contained cottages, to make a little income, and help maintain the property. Two years full time work from me and many helping hands took a worn out house in a beautiful position and turned it into Tasma House and Gardens around the year 2000.

There is a small booklet explaining this part of Tasma History, and you are welcome to pick it up during your stay. The booklet highlights all the efforts of those who contributed their talents to the rebuild. Click here to view the Tasma House booklet.Tasma House and Gardens has been a favourite place to stay for many Melbournians whilst travellers from far away places have told me that it reminds them of home.

Tasma House has two guest cottages situated in the Gardens. For over 10 years, The Potager and The Gatehouse were very popular with couples wanting to escape the city, while the main house was my family home.

Guests had their own kitchens and bathrooms, and they came and went as they pleased and catered for themselves.

A local booking agency handled the bookings during those years, and many guests returned 3 or 4 times a year for many years. The visitors books that were signed by guests have been saved as part of the more recent history, as we now enter a new phase of how the property is used.

If you stayed in The Gatehouse here at Tasma House and Gardens, you might like to click this link and find your comment, to relive a little of the memory of your visit here.

My family and I moved to Ballarat for a few years, and I have since separated, and re-purchased the property on my own, coming back to live here in 2009.

The last two years 2009 and 2010, has seen a marked change in how people use Tasma House. On returning here, I needed to make the property useful in a different way, because my family no longer lived here. I love that they can all still visit and that there is plenty of room, but it is too much for the needs of myself and my partner. So, rather than keeping it ready for the odd times that we can all get together, it is now ready for other family get-togethers, and earns its keep by doing what it has done since the 20’s.... giving respite from everyday life.

The revitalised Tasma House is what you are staying in today. A house that honours its history, changed its purpose when needed -- using some ideas from the past -- to make the current groups who make memories here feel like they are home, too. Some things haven’t changed much. Other things are nothing like they were. This is not a static display. It is constantly moving with the energy of those who visit it or stay a while longer. It’s supposed to inspire you, yet beckons you to do nothing while you are here.

People have celebrated, meditated, relaxed and waxed lyrical here for a long time, and now it’s time for some fresh History...........